Gone
by QueenyLeAcH
Summary: He knew this day would have to come. He just... didn't want to believe it.


**Disclaimer: I don't think I own anything... Wait! I own Lei! Though, her name is thanks to SPChip...**

**Note: I'm so excited to finally be writing a Time Stranger Kyoko FF. It is, undoubtedly, my favorite manga of all time. *Squee* Now, on to the show!**

Gone

Sakataki POV

I always knew that, one day, she'd have to leave, that Chronos would pass and Kyoko would have to become the God of Time. I just... didn't want to believe it. Somehow I knew, I knew that it was unlikely that I would ever see her again but that didn't mean that I had steeled myself, that I was ready for her to be gone. Gone. That one thought continued to reverberate in my head. _She's gone, and she can't come back. _

I gathered a lock of hair from her body as it turned from the fiery red of the God to the light chestnut of the my wife. I could feel tears welling in my eyes. _She's gone, but her body is right here, in front of me. _Her posture and the peaceful look on her face gave the impression that she was sleeping. How I wished she were sleeping, it would have been so easy to wake her then, just a peck on the cheek would do...

But she wouldn't wake up. She'd still remain motionless, _gone. _A tear slipped out.

"Daddy!" cried a young girl excitedly from the door. She let go of the albino hand of the fifty year old king and ran over to me. I wiped my tears away and reached down to lift her up. She was so light she could have easily flown. As I set her back on the ground, I wiped her long, dark hair away from her face and saw her bright brown eyes shining. "Daddy, where have you been? I missed you."

I smiled warmly at the five year old. "I've missed you too, but I had duties to attend to, Lei."

"I know," she pouted. "I just wish you could take me with you. I wanna watch you and Mommy work."

I refused to show her my anguish at her words. _Her mother was gone. _"Maybe when you're older."

"How old?" she demanded. Behind her I could see the king inching around to look at the raised altar behind me. When he saw that the facial features had returned to those of his former wife, he would take her back to her former chamber. I didn't want to deal with all that yet.

My attention quickly turned back to my daughter. I pretended to ponder a good age. "How about seventeen?"

"No. Mommy and Aunt Ui were only sixteen when they started helping Grandpa."

"Would you like to wait until you're sixteen?"

"No! I wanna help you now!" She stomped her foot on the ground in a childish fashion.

"But, Lei you'll find yourself completely bored. I have to sit in the same place all day and I can't go outside except when I'm helping Uncle Hizuki train the new guards. It's horrid. I'm sure you'd rather be outside playing with your cousin."

She shook her head, brown hair flying out and creating a sort of halo around her head. "All Sai does is eat and poop."

"That's what babies do," I laughed. "You used to be the same."

She went back to pouting. I always found it amusing that children could switch moods so easily. Truly, it must be part of their innocent form of magic. The king coughed, commanding the attention of his granddaughter and myself. He held out his hand. "Come, Lei. We've distracted your father long enough. It's time to go." She scampered over to him. "Oh, and, Sakataki," he said, turning back. "I'll come back later to give you a hand. What you're doing isn't easy."

Just like me, he was trying to spare Lei, at least for a short while, to the fact that her mother wouldn't be returning. I nodded and whispered a, "Thank you." I turned back to Kyoko's body and heard the door shut with a resonating boom. "Kyoko," I whispered, leaning over the body. "I love you."

"I love you too."

I whipped around and was surprised to see Kyoko standing in the center of the room, a staff in her hand and tears in her eyes. She was clothed in a simple white shift that gathered on the ground around her bare feet. I rushed forward and wrapped her in my arms. She was so real, from the scent of her skin to the wetness of the tears soaking through my shirt. "Kyoko..."

She pulled away and put a finger to my lips. "I can't stay."

"But..."

Her head shook. "I came to say goodbye. I shouldn't have just left in the middle of the night like that, but my father was nearly gone, and I had to be there for him. He couldn't be alone in his final hours. But now...now I'm the God of Time. I can't change that, and I can't return here for long periods of time either. It's... I couldn't just leave."

I cut her off the same way she had done to me not a minute ago. "I understand. Will I ever see you again?"

She smiled lovingly. "I'll come back as often as I can. I don't want to miss seeing our daughter grow up, after all."

"Speaking of our daughter, will she become the next Time God?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"She is the only child I have ever had and ever will have, so most likely. When I asked my father shortly after her birth, he said pretty much the same thing."

I smoothed her hair, wishing that this was just a bad dream, that I would wake up and Chronos wouldn't be dead, but as she started to fade away, I knew that my wishing was hopeless. "Goodbye," I said. Maybe she wasn't completely gone after all...

"We'll meet again," she promised. Her smile was the last thing I saw.

**I feel like I did a bad job... Oh well, I've just set up an actual story, though I don't know if I'll act on it yet. Haha. I'm evil.**

**Also, a thank you to by beta Vixen48!**

**REVIEW**

**-LeAcH**


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